


Giving Chances

by pasteldanhowells



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: AU, Angst, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 17:22:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9082180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pasteldanhowells/pseuds/pasteldanhowells
Summary: Phil Lester has always been an only child his whole life, he never had any siblings. But he liked it like that. It wasn’t until his parents dropped a bomb on him that they had adopted a little scared, shy 15 year old boy named Daniel Howell. Phil is not happy about this at all. After a few weeks, he finally gets to know Dan and they form a friendship that blossoms into something more. They have to figure out how to be in a relationship, knowing that their parents would never accept them being together.





	1. Chapter 1

“Why did you have to adopt another kid?!” Phil Lester yelled at his mother.

“Philip Michael Lester… don’t you dare raise your voice at me like that!” Paula Lester yelled right back at her son, disappointment clearly written on her face. She knew beforehand that her son wouldn’t be exactly thrilled with the news that they had just given him but she had expected better from him, at least much better than this.

It was Friday, after a rather long and dreadful week, Phil thought that things would be better since it was the weekend, but he was wrong about that. Today hadn’t been such a great day for Phil, to say the least. Phil had recently broken up with his boyfriend, Mason. They had been going out with each other for the last couple of months. He was quite in love with him after all the time they spent together, but he had found out Mason had cheated on him two days ago with someone else. Phil was devastated and heartbroken but he hadn’t told anybody about it yet as there was already a lot going on and Phil didn’t want to add more to the drama so he just kept to himself for now.

But now his parents, Paula and Jack Lester, had just dropped the bomb that they had adopted another son, who was only four years younger than Phil was. He honestly got that his parents wanted to do something good, as they were quite a rich family and had the money to be able to adopt another child and bring him into their home, but couldn’t they have at least told him that before they signed the papers? He was mad at them, anybody would be if they were in his position. It seemed rather unfair to Phil that they did this without even asking him how he felt about having another kid in the house in the first place, they just did it without asking for his opinion.

Phil had been arguing with his parents in the kitchen about the topic for about an hour now, arguing with his parents was something Phil never did. Not that it had much effect, what was done was done and he couldn’t change it. He just had to “suck it up and act nicely” as his parents had put it. Phil had to live with it whether he liked it or not.

His name was Daniel James Howell, but he preferred to be called Dan, Daniel always sounded too formal to him and he really didn’t like it at all, it didn’t suit him at all. Dan was 15 now but he had lived in an orphanage since he was two years old. His parents couldn’t take care of him when he was a baby, it was too much for them so they decided to put him up for adoption and left him. Dan was a very shy boy, and he always had been, he never ever spoke a word to anyone unless he absolutely needed to. That was one of the many reasons why nobody wanted to adopt him before the Lester’s came along. A few families had tried fostering him before but all of them had given up on him because he never spoke a word and he was just too shy and skittish. The longest that he had been in another family’s home was about a year, which wasn’t long at all.

Dan was already coming “Home” tomorrow and Phil was definitely not happy about it one bit. He had always enjoyed being the only child in his family, he always got the attention and even though he was 19… he wanted it to stay like that. You could say that he was a bit spoiled, and even while he knew this, he still didn’t care what his parents said. They had tried to explain to him about how hard Dan’s life had been for him since he was a little boy… but Phil still didn’t listen to anything that they said to him. They had also tried to tell Phil that they since they were such a wealthy family, they wanted to use their money for good and help a child who wasn’t as fortunate as them. Even though he knew that his parents were right, it still angered him a bit.

“I like our family just the way it is!” Phil yelled angrily at his parents.

“I’m sure bringing another child into our home won’t change us dramatically,” His mother answered him, trying to remain calm and not shout back.

“How do you know that? You’ll forget all about me and you’ll only pay attention to him just because he’s had a rough life. I may be 19 but I still need my parents too,” Phil said calmly, even though he couldn’t help the tiny sob he released after he said it. He never was one for shouting, usually it frightened him so he tried to limit it as much as possible, or crying for that matter, but this was a serious situation that was going on with his family right now, so he had to let his parents know how he felt.

“Oh Philip! You’re being absolutely ridiculous. We won’t be like that,” Jack said, trying to make his son feel at least a little better. They hadn’t seen their son this upset since the day he came out to them, which said enough on it’s own. He got that Phil was insecure about this situation, but this wasn’t something to feel insecure about. They would always love Phil more as he was their son, that wasn’t even a question. He was their first son, and naturally, more important to them. They would both love Dan and Phil equally, and they just wanted Phil to see that.

“We’ll see about that,” Phil mumbled. He then scoffed and shook his head. Not believing them them one bit, he believed that they would pay more attention to this “Dan” boy than to him, they would love him more and just adore him. It would be like the kids school said once they all found out Phil’s parents were adopting another boy, as everybody knew the Lester’s quite well as they were one of the richest families around town: “His parents would grow bored of him. Maybe they already were and was that the reason they wanted to adopt another son, a better son. Someone who would be perfect because they chose him, and weren’t stuck with him like with Phil.” That frightened Phil honestly. He didn’t get where all this insecurity suddenly came from, normally he was a pretty confident person. Everybody knew he got bullied a little bit when he was still in school but it was never enough to let his self-confidence drop to low.

“Enough, Phil. I expect you to welcome Daniel into our home. He’s had a very long journey to come here, and since he’s very shy and scared, I can’t even imagine how he will feel tomorrow. Right now, he’ll need you to act like a big brother to him and make him feel loved,” Paula said sternly to her son, wanting him to understand what Dan will have to go through to get here. She really needed him to behave like the adult he was and accept the fact that Dan would come and live here with them.

“I’m not his brother nor will I ever be, okay?!” Phil was back to yelling as soon as he heard his mother’s words, clearly angry. “For God sakes, it’s like either of you don’t even care about my feelings. You two can bring a new kid into this home all you want, but that does not mean that I will be happy about it, and I sure as hell won’t be his big brother!” With that Phil turned on his heels and stormed out of the kitchen without saying another word, leaving his parents upset about the fact that they made him upset enough to swear, which is definitely something that Phil has never done before.

“Phil!” Paula yelled, shocked and actually kind of disappointed at how her son had just spoken to her, since they weren’t used to this kind of behaviour from him. He always was a good and polite boy, and he never yelled or stormed out on them like he just did.

“Leave him. Phil’s just shocked, he needs a little while to himself to calm down, this is a big deal. We’re bringing in another human being into the house after it’s been just us three for a long time, this isn’t like a dog that we’re bringing home… it’s a boy. but you know, I’m sure he’ll warm up to the idea in no time.” Jack said as he walked over to his wife. He gave her a reassuring smile and he reached over and kissed her cheek gently.

“Are you sure? Phil seems really upset. Maybe we should have talked to him first before we did this. I don’t want him to be unhappy,” Paula answered. She couldn’t help but smile when she felt her husband softly kiss her cheek, She always loved it when he did little things like that, it was one of the many things that she loved about her husband.

“I know love… I really don’t want Phil to be unhappy either but I promise you… things will fall into place eventually.” Jack mumbled reassuringly against her cheek.

The next day;

Saturday came quicker than Phil wanted it to. Today was the day that Daniel, or ‘Dan’ was coming and Phil would be meeting him for the first time. He couldn’t care less about him though, he was going to fake a smile for his parents and let it seem like he was okay with the whole idea now. After seeing how excited and happy his parents were yesterday, and how bad he acted… he felt like he owned them to at least act polite. He still didn’t want anything to do with Dan, he had a lot more better things to do in his life than worrying about some 15-year-old boy that he didn’t even know; like spending countless hours on the internet or re-reading his favorite books and catching up on his favorite TV shows. Those were the types of things that Phil only wanted to worry about, and he intended to keep it that way… no matter what his parents. 

“Phil! Come downstairs, now please!” Paula yelled from the bottom of the stairs, having hope that her son would behave tonight. Dan was already scared about coming to a new home and she didn’t want Phil to scare him more than he already was.

Phil sighed as he walked out of his bedroom and walked over to the top of the stairs. It was 8pm, later than he normally would have been called down so he knew Dan was down there, and just the thought of this new kid being in his house made him upset.

“Yes mum?” Phil asked as he looked down at his mother.

“Come downstairs dear. There’s someone we want you to meet now,” She said. Yeah, just like he thought, Dan was there. He had no intention of meeting the boy but…. he didn’t really have a choice. It would be this or he had to move out on his own, which he hadn’t planned on doing for quite a long time now as he was still rather young and the thought of being out on his own in the real world absolutely terrified him.

So Phil only rolled his eyes while walking down the stairs and mumbling, “I’m still not happy about this… just so you know that.” To his mum as he walked past her.

“Be nice to him,” Paula warned her son after she heard what he said.

“And I’m never forgiving you and dad either,” Phil quickly added, ignoring his mother.

“Stop that nonsense. You will thank us later once you realize how sweet and nice Dan is,” Paula said to him before she gently grabbed Phil’s arm and led the way into the living room, where Dan most likely was. Phil looked up and sighed when he saw his father sitting on the couch with a younger boy beside him. They were talking and the boy already seemed to be getting along with his father. Phil didn’t like that one bit. “Daniel?”

The boy, Dan, looked over when he heard Paula call his name. He did a double take and stood up when he saw Phil standing next to her, a little bit afraid as Phil didn’t look happy at all. Paula and Jack, his new parents, had told him about how kind Phil was and that Phil was a very loving person… so Dan hadn’t really expected to see him like this.

“Calm down, Daniel-” Phil’s father began to say as he followed Dan and also stood up.

“I-It’s Dan, please,” Dan mumbled as he looked down at his hands before realising that he cut his father off. “S-Sorry.” He felt stupid. He only just met his new family and already he was stuttering, he was a lot older now so he was trying his best to try to talk more, it wasn’t like he could spent his whole life hiding from people, that was silly.

“That’s alright. We’ll call you Dan if you would like that,” Jack tried to calm the boy when he saw how nervous he was when he spoke. When they had gone to look at children at the orphanage and saw Dan, the people who worked there warned them about how quiet Dan was and told them about how much he stuttered whenever he spoke, so Jack wasn’t that surprised that Dan was acting like this at all, he had expected it beforehand.

Dan slowly nodded and then he looked up again, but as soon as he made eye contact with his new brother, he found himself looking away quickly again. The look he got from him was ice… and ice cold. How on Earth did he manage to already get his “brother” to hate him this quickly? Was he really that unlikeable? Even though Dan knew that he was very shy, he was also very friendly towards others, or so he liked to think so.

“Dan, we’d like you to meet our son… Philip, though he likes to be called Phil,” Paula said calmly while gesturing to Phil with her hand. She looked over at her son while a proud smile formed on her lips. Even though Phil had been acting up ever since they told him about adopting Dan, she was still very proud of having Phil as her son.

“He only gets called Philip when he’s in trouble,” Jack added, obviously trying to crack a joke to lighten the mood, to try and make Dan feel more calm as he was still looking scared. Jack hoped that Dan wouldn’t always be like this, he hoped that he would eventually warm up to them, he just wanted Dan to feel comfortable. 

“Dad!” Phil hissed, he scoffed and crossed his arms against his chest.

“Relax. It was just a joke Phil,” Paula said, while rolling her eyes. She knew Phil was still upset but she just wished that he would relax for a few minutes in front of Dan. “Now go meet your new brother. It’s quite late so I’m going to order you boys pizza. Phil, I expect you to help Dan if he needs any help and show him to his bedroom.”

“Why can’t you show him where his bedroom is?” Phil asked, whining softly.

“Do as your mother says. I’ll be in my office,” Jack said, before turning to Dan. “Make yourself at home Dan, this is your home too now. Phil will show you where your bedroom is in a few minutes, and I’m sure he’ll help you if you need any other help around the house.” He said before glaring to Phil as if to say ‘you better be nice to this boy or you don’t want to know the consequences’. He walked over to his wife, took her hand and led the way out if the living room, leaving Dan and Phil alone together for the first time.

Phil only kept his arms crossed against his chest as he glared at Dan as if he was trying to make him disappear, though he knew that was pretty much impossible to do.

Dan glanced around the living room a few seconds before he looked over at Phil again and gasped when he saw the look on his face. He did not look happy at all and Dan didn’t know what he did to make Phil so upset. It scared him to death, knowing that his brother hated him even though they never had spoken a word to each other before.

Phil looked around to make sure his parents were completely gone and out of sight before he looked over at Dan again. “Listen, you little twat…” Phil hissed as he walked over to Dan. “I don’t care who you are or what you’ve been through. I have my own damn life to worry about, and I don’t want to have to worry about some bloody 15-year-old. So stay the hell away from me and we won’t have any problems, got it? Don’t bother me and don’t ask me any questions. I’m sure you can find your own way around this house, you’re old enough to do that your own. Do we understand each other?” Dan quickly nodded, his eyes wide with fear. Phil smirked when he saw the look in Dan’s eyes. He never wanted to make him scared… he also didn’t want anything to do with this kid. So, if scaring him a little bit meant that he was left alone, he didn’t really mind scaring him then. “Good. I’m glad we understand each other. Now, if you don’t mind…”

Dan frowned as he watched Phil started to walk away from him. “Wait-”

Phil sighed loudly before he turned around again. “Didn’t you hear what I just said?”

“I-I’m s-sorry, b-b-but, I-I don’t know where my r-room is,” Dan stuttered.

Phil only rolled his eyes at the boys words. “Fine. Grab your bag then,” He ordered.

Dan quickly grabbed his bag from the couch as told and then he walked over to Phil, though keeping his distance from Phil, since he was now absolutely terrified of him.

Phil bit his lip as he watched the boy walk towards him. He was beautiful, with brown hair and dark, chocolate brown eyes. Dan was definitely the best looking 15-year-old that Phil had ever seen before, surprisingly. He quickly shook his head, not wanting to think about his new brother like that, it was wrong to think about him like that. “Follow me.” Phil managed to whisper, still too caught up in the boy’s beauty to think normally.

Dan raised his eyebrows slightly when he heard the affectionate tone in Phil’s voice but he quietly followed Phil out of the living room and then they walked up the stairs and walked down a rather long hallway. Dan’s bedroom was at the very end of the hallway which also had Phils bedroom, which might a problem considering they could run into each other. Phil made it clear that he didn’t want to be around Dan, so Dan was definitely going to try his best to keep his distance away from Phil. “If you need anything, well… just don’t ask me, I’m sure you’ll be just fine on your own,” He snapped at Dan while opening the bedroom door and then mentioning for him to go inside.

Dan stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds before he finally walked into his bedroom. He looked around and gasped when he saw how big his room actually was. He never had he had a room as big as this one, most of his rooms weren’t bigger than a closet or a bathroom, and it was even worse at the orphanage because he had to share the room with a bunch of other boys. There was everything that Dan had always wanted in this bedroom; besides the fact that the room was massive, it also consisted of a flat screen TV with a bunch of different game systems already attached to it and even a DVD collection bigger than he had ever seen in his life before.

Dan dropped his bag as he ran over to the TV and sat down in front of it. He couldn’t wait to sit in front of this TV for hours playing video games. Dan’s only ever played a few video games in his life-time, when he had gotten adopted before. He loved playing video games so he was very excited about having his own video games to play. Honestly, Dan felt like a little kid again, seeing all this stuff made him excited for what else to come.

One week later;

It’s now been a week since Dan had arrived at the Lester’s house.

Phil spent most of his time locked in his bedroom or he was out with his friends, he basically wanted to be away from Dan as much as possible. They never spoke a word to each other, with the exception of when they were around their parents together, and even then only because Phil didn’t want his parents to know what he said to Dan last week, knowing how upset they would be if they ever found out how he treated Dan.

“So, how’s your new little brother?” Phil’s best friend, PJ, asked.

“Okay, first of all, he’s not my brother… so don’t you dare call him my little brother,” Phil snapped at his friend, not wanting him to think they would actually act like brothers because they certainly weren’t. Just because his parents adopted him, didn’t make them brothers, or that’s how Phil thought, he didn’t want to have to call Dan 'his brother’ ever.

It was another weekend and Phil had his two friends, Chris Kendall and PJ Liguori, come over to the house to hang out with Phil for a little bit. Phil’s friendship with Chris and PJ goes way back to kindergarten and they have always hung out whenever possible since then, especially now as Chris and PJ were going to university soon. He wasn’t looking forward to it at all because it would only meant he wont get to see his friends as much as before. Chris and PJ were only Phil’s true friends so he was sad that they were leaving, but he was also happy for them because he knew how hard they had worked to get into the University that they had gotten into. So he couldn’t complain really.

“Have you even talked to him since he’s been here?” Chris asked, slightly taken back by the way Phil said those words. He and PJ were sitting next to each other on the counter in Phil’s kitchen while Phil was sat at the table. They were waiting for the pizza that they ordered to arrive. “I mean, it’s been like a week? Since he’s been here and all,”

“No, I haven’t talked to him at all. Why in the world would I want to waste my time talking to a 15-year-old?” Phil asked Chris, surprised that Chris would ask such a thing.

PJ only rolled his eyes at his friend’s comment. “You can’t live like this forever. He’s going to be here whether you like it or not, so why don’t you try to get to know him? I’m sure he’s a nice kid once you get to know him and stuff. I mean, he can’t be that bad,”

“Never, If he thinks he can just walk into this family and be best friends with me then he’s mistaken. I don’t want anything to do with him,” Phil grumbled in response.

“Do whatever you want, it’s not my bloody problem, but… I think you’re being harsh on the poor kid,” PJ said, not entirely sure what to make of the situation. He nor Chris hadn’t met Dan yet so they didn’t what he was like, and Phil never talked about him either. But PJ was curious because whenever Phil did talk about him, it wasn’t nice. Phil was usually never ever like this, he had never acted like this before.

The three boys all looked up at the same time when they heard someone walk into the kitchen, and as soon as Phil saw who it was, he only rolled his eyes and glanced at his friends, wanting to look anywhere in the kitchen that wasn’t at Dan.

Dan looked up and gasped when he saw Phil was already there. He stood there frozen, not sure if he should just get what he wanted from the kitchen or run away quickly.

Phil look back at Dan with an annoyed look in his eyes. “Uh, hello. Can we help you?” He asked rather rudely. Dan usually stayed up in his bedroom, playing video games, so Phil was a little surprised that Dan even came down into the kitchen in the first place.

Dan stared at Phil with wide eyes and mumbled, "I-I just wanted a dr-drink,“

"Well then, get your drink and get out. We’re busy here,” Phil snapped at him.

“Phil-” PJ hissed at his friend before he sighed and shook his head. He then turned to back over to Dan, giving him a reassuring smile. “Need a glass?” He asked him kindly.

Dan nervously looked over at PJ and he slowly nodded towards him without saying a single word. With Phil being in the room, he was too scared to say anything to anybody.

“Alright then,” PJ gently hopped of the counter and then he reached over to one of the cabinets above Chris’s his head to get a glass for Dan. “Here you go-” He said as he handed the glass over to the younger boy. PJ didn’t really know much about this boy but he could tell already that he was a very shy boy, and PJ just wanted to make him feel comfortable around him, and make him feel less scared.

Chris raised his eyebrows as he watched carefully PJ interact with Dan.

Dan hesitated for a moment, before he walked over, taking the glass from PJ. “Th-Thank you.” At that moment, he hated himself more than ever for stuttering. Phil’s friend was only trying to be nice and he was making himself look like an idiot already.

PJ only gave him a reassuring smile. “No problem.” He said.

Phil, Chris and PJ all sat in silence as they watched Dan walk over to the fridge and open the freezer side. He then put some ice in his glass before adding some pepsi. When he turned around and saw the three friends staring at him he froze and looked down.

“So, you’re the famous Dan we’ve been hearing about?” Chris asked in a curious voice.

“I-” Dan could feel his cheeks burning red. and he knew that he was blushing, so he cut himself off before he said something stupid or embarrassing in front of Phil’s friends.

“Chris,” Phil warned as he looked over at Chris, glaring at him.

“What? I think me and Peej here deserve to get to know your little brother,” Chris said.

“For fuck sakes, what did I say about that? He’s not my brother,” Phil snapped.

That hurt, what Phil had just said, it hurt him more than he wanted to admit. Dan still had no idea what he did to make Phil hate him so much, and he wished Phil would give him a chance and maybe even be friends with him. That’s all that Dan wanted really. He’d never had a real brother before, so he just hoped that Phil would be the first. But, with the way things have been going… it looked like it wasn’t happening any time soon.

“I’ll just…” Dan didn’t even finish his sentence and, he just quickly walked out of the kitchen before anyone said anything else to him. He could already feel the tears burning in his eyes and he really didn’t want to break down in front of his brother and his friends.

“Jesus Christ, Phil!” PJ scolded at his friend.

“You’ve got the poor kid too scared to even be around you. What in the bloody hell did you say to him that made him so scared like that?” Chris said. He looked a little shocked, not having expected Phil to act like that, because he never acted like that. 

“Nothing. I mean, I said a couple things to him, that was it,” Phil mumbled before shrugging his shoulders. “Nothing too bad.” Even though he knew that was a lie, but he couldn’t tell Chris and PJ the truth about what he really said to Dan earlier.

“I don’t get what’s so bad about him? He’s pretty cute, and he’s got a nice ass-”

“Chris, you fucker!” PJ yelled at Chris while pinching his arm. “You can’t just say that,”

“Ow!” Chris whined as he rubbed the spot where PJ punched.

Phil let out a laugh at his friends behaviour. “You two act like a married couple,” He said.

“We won’t be a couple for much longer if he keeps that up,” PJ grumbled as a response.

“Come on babe, I was joking! Bloody hell… he’s 15 for Christ sakes!” Chris exclaimed.

PJ only chuckled and shook his head. “It’s going to be a long night,” He said.

The pizza finally arrived around half an hour later.

“Dan, come get your pizza!” Phil yelled from the bottom of the stairs. Due to his mother’s request, he also ordered Dan his own pizza. They never really saw him as he was too shy to sit at the table with them so most of the time the boy lived on snacks. Phil sighed when he got no response and walked back into the living room, where Chris and PJ were.

“Oh my God… I haven’t had pizza in forever. It smells so good,” Chris said as he opened one of the pizza boxes. He looked up when Phil walked into the room.

“Well… I’m sure we’ll be having a lot of fast food once we’re in Uni,” PJ stated.

“Ugh… don’t even talk about that. I can’t believe you two are leaving me,” Phil grumbled as he sat down on the couch next to PJ. “I’m going to be stuck here all by myself.”

PJ laughed as he looked over at Phil. "You could have applied for Uni too,” He said.

“I hate school… why would I wanna go through four more years of it?” Phil asked them.

“Good point,” Chris said as he plopped down on the couch.

“Chris is only going because I’m going,” PJ said, while smiling and pointing at Chris.

“Also another good point,” Chris said as he reached over and kissed PJ’s cheek.

PJ looked over at Chris and couldn’t help but smile.

“You two make me sick,” Phil said jokingly as he looked over at them.

“Oh, don’t be so jealous!” Chris said, laughing as he wrapped his arms around PJ.

When Dan still didn’t come down after 15 minutes Phil’s friends started to get worried.

“Phil, didn’t you call Dan to come down?” Chris asked as he looked over at him.

Phil looked up him and nodded. “Yeah… I guess he isn’t hungry,” He said.

“Bullshit. You just don’t want to go up there and talk to him,” PJ said.

“Fine, I’ll go!” Phil sighed in defeat. He stood up from the couch and glared at his friends before walking out of the living room. He dragged himself up the stairs and towards Dan’s room, which surprisingly was cracked open. Phil pushed the door further open and looked inside the room, only to see Dan curled up in a little ball on his bed. “Dan, didn’t you hear me? Your pizza is here, come get it before it gets cold,” He said softly, surprised by the way he said it. Phil had never talked to Dan like this usually.

Dan immediately looked over when he heard Phil’s voice, then he shook his head. “I’m not hungry thanks,” He mumbled and turned back so that he was staring at the wall.

“You haven’t eaten all day. You can’t just starve yourself,” Phil said to him. 

Dan looked back at Phil. “Why do you care? You don’t even like me,” he snapped.

Phil blinked a few times when Dan snapped at him, which was something that he never did before, as he was usually shy. “No… but my parents obviously do like you and I’m sure they’ll be upset if they find out that you’re starving yourself,” He said.

“I’m not starving myself, so don’t worry about it,” Dan mumbled.

“Well, how are we supposed to know that? You never eat dinner with us,” Phil snapped.

“Because you’re the one who said to stay out of your way,” Dan snapped back at him.

“My parents will start to know if something’s up if this keeps going on,” Phil said.

“Why do you hate me so much Phil?” Dan asked quietly, ignoring what Phil had said.

Phil bit his lip nervously as he stared at Dan. He could see how upset Dan was just by the look on his face and he couldn’t help but feel bad. Dan was only 15-years-old after all. “I don’t hate you Dan,” He said softly before sighing. “How would you feel if you were an only child for the first 19 years of your life and then suddenly this new kid comes into your family? I rely on my parents more than I would like to even admit , and I don’t want them to be taken away from me-” Phil took a deep breath before he continued on, “I’ve always been close with my parents, but I’ve been even closer to them after I had come out and told them that I was gay a few years ago. They were always there and they supported me. I just don’t want to lose the bond that we have, they mean so much to me than you think,” Phil said. He shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ve never had parents, not since I was little but I don’t even remember what my real parents look like… Mr. and Mrs. Lester came to visit me and they talked to me when I was all alone at the orphanage, and they care about me. They kept telling me over again that they did care about me and that they would love me like no one else has before. That’s all I’ve ever wanted in my life, was for just someone to care about me like that. I really do appreciate them for everything that they’ve done for me so far,” Dan whispered as a couple tears fell out of his eyes. Crying in front of his brother was definitely something he didn’t want to do, but the past few weeks have been rather difficult for him, so he was a little emotional at the moment. He couldn’t help himself really.

Phil couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty for Dan; The way Dan was talking made Phil open his eyes a little more about what was going on between them. Before, he didn’t really care about what Dan had gone through but after hearing Dan talk like that, he felt for him, honestly. He could tell that Dan was upset and maybe even a little hurt from what he had been through in the past, and Phil knew that he should probably be a little nicer to Dan, but it was just a little weird for him, and even a little awkward.

Phil took a deep breath and then he quickly shook his head. “Well, uhm… I’ll put your pizza in the fridge, so you know where to find it if you want it later. You can just heat it up later I’m sure,” He whispered and then he turned around and then he finally walked out of Dan’s room, and he towards the living room back to where his friends were.

“I talked to Dan, I think he’s tired tonight, so he’s going to bed. He said he wasn’t hungry,” Phil somewhat lied to his friends as he walked over to the couch and sat down.

“Really? That’s odd, it’s kind of early to be going to bed, isn’t it?” PJ asked curiously as he looked at Phil, not believing what he said, especially after what happened earlier.

Phil shrugged his shoulders. “I’m going to put his pizza in the fridge…”

“Okay-” PJ blinked a few times, not really getting where this was coming from, before he went upstairs he couldn’t give a damn about Dan, but now, here he was making sure that his food stayed alright, and he seemed a little more calmer as well. PJ didn’t know what happened when Phil went upstairs, but he was definitely one hundred percent sure that Phil had actually talked to Dan and something happened between them.

Chris shrugged his shoulders at him and continued eating his pizza.

They both watched as Phil grabbed Dan’s pizza and left the living room. “Okay… we have to do something about those two- Chris! Are you even listening to me?” PJ asked, rolling his eyes as he watched his boyfriend gobbled down his pizza.

“Peej, why are you so worried?” Chris whined while putting his pizza down.

“I feel bad for Dan, okay? He seems like a nice kid who just wants Phil to like him even just a little bit, but Phil won’t even be in the same room with him. You saw how he acted earlier, it’s that bad when it shouldn’t be,” PJ answered.

Chris bit his lip as he looked over at PJ. “Well, what are we supposed to do?” He asked.

“We’ll come up with a plan… that’s what we’ll do,” PJ said to him.

______

It was a couple days later when Chris and PJ were back at Phil’s house, though this time they weren’t there to see Phil, they were here to see Dan. They wanted to get to know him a little better, and maybe even talk to him and have a real conversation with him, hopefully. Dan seemed like a nice kid, despite all that Phil said about him before.

“Um… does Phil know you’re here?” Dan asked randomly when he was sitting in the living room with Chris and PJ on the couch. Chris and PJ arrived at Dan and Phil’s house, and Dan was surprised they were actually talking to him, not Phil. He was also shocked at himself that he was actually speaking without stuttering. He just really liked Chris and PJ and was comfortable around them. They were really nice to him when Dan had met them the other day, so there really wasn’t any need to be afraid of them.

“If Phil found out we were here with you… he’d pretty much kill us,” Chris said to him.

PJ nodded in agreement at his boyfriends words. “Yeah… and we didn’t exactly want to talk to Phil anyways, surprisingly. We actually wanted to talk to you,” He added.

“Why would you want to talk to me? There’s nothing special about me,” Dan mumbled in response before he sighed and leaned back against the couch. He always was like this, talking himself down or thinking negative thoughts. He wondered when it had started, but he guessed it was since his parents abandoned him when he was a little boy… kind of logic. Dan went through quite a lot growing up; growing up in an orphanage with other kids and living with different families who sometimes weren’t all that nice to him.

"Aw, come on Dan. Don’t say that! I mean… clearly there must be something special about you if Phil’s parents like you,” Chris reassured him smiling.

“So, tell us Dan. How does Phil really treat you?” PJ asked as he looked over at Dan.

Dan blinked a few times as he looked up. “Phil doesn’t care about me, he’s made it clear to me that he doesn’t want me around. I mean… he won’t even call me his brother. So I just try not to bother him, just like he asked me to…” Dan explained to them, trying his best to hide the sadness behind his voice, though he was clearly failing.

“Don’t give up hope, you know? It’s only the second week that you’ve been here. I’m sure Phil will open up to you eventually. He normally is a very nice guy so I don’t think he’ll keep this behavior towards you up very long. Take it from us, his best friends, do you think we would be friends with him if he was a giant asshole all the time?” PJ said.

“Yeah well… I’ll believe that when he actually talks to me without snapping at me or even yelling at me… which is probably impossible for him,” Dan mumbled unconvinced at what PJ said about Phil, forgetting about the talk that they had a couple days before.

PJ frowned as he looked over at Chris, feeling even worse for Dan, and getting madder and madder at their friend. They didn’t get how there normally super kind friend could treat a person like that, especially to someone who seemed so nice.

***

Quite awhile has passed since Chris and PJ arrived at Phil’s house and they’ve spent most of the time talking to Dan and getting to know him a little better. They both really liked him and had no idea why Phil didn’t. Dan was even start to open up a little, and he talked to Chris and PJ about what it was like growing up in an orphanage, though he didn’t go into too much detail, because not all of his childhood was very nice.

Dan and PJ were currently in the middle of a rather heated conversation about their favorite video games and Chris was messing around on his phone, probably texting one of his friends. He looked over and quickly sat up as soon as he heard Phil walk into the living room. “Oh. Uh… hey Phil,” Chris said calmly to his friend.

PJ also looked over and bit his lip nervously when he saw Phil’s angry face.

“What are you doing, stealing my friends now too?” Phil asked angrily when he saw Dan.

Dan froze up immediately when he heard Phil’s voice, not having noticed his entrance, and was already too afraid to say anything. You could practically hear his heart pounding against his chest at the moment. Dan was afraid that this would happen if Phil ever saw him talking alone with Chris and PJ, because Phil made it clear that he felt like Dan was stealing his family away from him when Dan in reality, wasn’t doing that at all. 

“Phil, would you just listen to me and calm down for a second?” PJ asked his friend calmly before the other could say anything while he stood up.

“No, I will not calm down for a bloody second!” Phil yelled back at PJ.

“Listen to me, okay? Dan had no idea we were coming over, we only wanted to see why you hated him so much and… we still don’t get it. He’s really nice and you would know that if you would talk to him and give him a chance!” PJ snapped. PJ never snapped at anyone, especially not his friends. But, he just couldn’t help it.

“You would feel the same way if you were in my position,” Phil snapped back at him.

“No, I wouldn’t Phil. Maybe I would be at first I guess, but at least I wouldn’t treat Dan awfully like you do now! I would actually talk to him, get to know him a little,” PJ said and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for snapping at you like that but… I just-I just don’t get it. We’ve been talking to Dan for quite a while now and he’s a very nice kid once you get to know him, honestly, so just give it a try, please?” PJ asked hopefully.

Phil sighed as he looked over at Dan and his face immediately softened when he saw the look on the boy’s face, he looked like he was about to burst into tears at any second. This would be the second time he had made Dan cry and Phil didn’t feel great about it, actually, he felt awful because of it. he had never made anybody cry before, yet here he had made Dan cry for no reason. PJ had a point though, Phil didn’t even give Dan a chance or get to know him at all. Maybe it was time to change his attitude,

“We’ll leave you two alone then. Come on Chris,” PJ said.

They both stood up from the couch, Chris reached over and grabbed PJ’s hand. “Well, it was nice talking to you. We’ll see you later, Dan…” Chris said to Dan.

They walked over to Phil. “Talk to him… now-” PJ hissed at his friend before he and Chris walked out of the living room, leaving Dan and Phil alone.

Phil rolled his eyes at his friends and then he looked over at Dan, a frown formed on his face as he watched him stand up from the couch. “Where are you going?” Phil asked, slightly nervous, as he watched Dan walk over to the door.

“Y-You told me not to bother you… so I’m not g-going to bother you. I-I’ll be in my room if you need me… though I’m sure you won’t need me for anything,” Dan mumbled. He was about to walk out of the living room when Phil grabbed his arm. He immediately looked back and was surprised when he saw his ‘brother’ standing next to him. “L-Let me go…”

“Do you think we could talk?” Phil asked softly. “Maybe PJ was right…”

“Now you want to get to know me?” Dan asked quietly.

“I want to give you a chance,” Phil said, pulling Dan over to the couch with him. His mood had changed for the better, only seconds ago he was almost blinded by rage, but now he was oddly calm, thinking about every move he was about to make.

“W-why?” Dan asked, following him over to the couch, where they both sat down.

“Well, we’ve gotta start some time… don’t we? I can’t exactly go on hating you forever, I mean… PJ was right, I should get to know you before judging you like I did,” Phil said.

“I like PJ. He’s nice, and he’s super smart,” Dan whispered.

“Yeah, he is, He’s always been like that ever since we met each other, and I think maybe that’s of the reasons he’s one of my best friends, and Chris as well of course…”

“Chris is really funny. He makes me laugh a lot, which is something not a lot of people can do,” Dan added. “You’re lucky to have friends like them.”

“Didn’t you have any friends?” Phil asked curiously, not trying to sound rude.

“I moved around with different families so much, so no… not really, and I didn’t really get along with any of the other boys at the orphanage because they were all always older than me and not very nice,” Dan explained and looked up at Phil.

“I’m sure you’ll get some new friends once you start school soon,” Phil said.

"Is school scary? Mum and dad told me about it but… I don’t know,” Dan mumbled.

“It’s scary at first but, I don’t know… you’ll get used to it,” Phil told him. “You just have to find yourself a couple of friends like I did, to help you get through it. As long as you keep up with everything, you should be fine. You seem like a smart kid, so I’m sure you will be fine.” He said, and then he shrugged his shoulders.

“Stop calling me a kid. I’m 15-years-old,” Dan grumbled.

Phil raised his eyebrows. “A bit defensive are we?” He asked, noticing how Dan stopped stuttering. It was usual when Dan didn’t stutter when he spoke, even being at the Lester household for a couple weeks now. He even still stuttered in front of their parents.

“You would be too if everybody kept calling you a kid,” Dan mumbled, annoyed.

“Alright,” Phil shrugged his shoulders and chewed his bottom lip as he stared at Dan. He knew it was wrong; the way he got butterfly’s in his stomach every time he only even looked at the boy, and he knew that he was developing a crush on him. Dan was his brother, he shouldn’t be feeling like this . It wasn’t right. His parents would never allow it if they found out how their son was starting to feel about his ‘brother’, they would most likely forbid it, and maybe even go as far as sending Dan back to the orphanage.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Dan asked when he noticed that Phil had been staring at him. He blushed and then he looked down at his hands.

Phil quickly shook his head. “Uhm, no reason. Hey, why don’t we go out? We could go see a movie or something, I want to make up for how I treated you before,” He said.

“I’ve never been to the movies before,” Dan said as he sat up excitedly.

“You’ve never been to the movies!?” Phil asked, a little shocked.

Dan shook his head. “No… they always said I was too young,”

Phil scoffed. “Oh please, that’s bullshit. You’re not too young at all. Come on! We’ll go see a movie and afterwards we can go get some food,” He stood up and held his hand out for Dan, who hesitated for a moment before grabbing it and smiled after he took it.

"Okay, sounds fun-” Dan said, feeling a little excited that he was finally going to get to spend time with Phil, and maybe they would actually talk with each other and he would get the chance to make Phil hate him a little less. Plus, it would be his first time seeing a movie in the theaters, so he was very excited about that as well.

They decided to go see 'Guardians Of The Galaxy’, which they both absolutely loved, especially Dan, and when the movie was done they decided to get some food and hang out around the city, talking about everything and nothing. It was like they had completely forgotten about the rest of the world, even for a little bit.

Spending the day out with Dan definitely opened Phil’s eyes more; and he kind of wished that he hadn’t had been such a fool and gave Dan a chance right away because he was actually fun to hang out with once he opened up his shell a little. Phil really liked being around him, and he was glad he had followed PJ’s advice and stopped being a douchbag.


	2. Chapter 2

It’s officially been a month since Dan become apart of the Lester family.

After Dan and Phil finally talked with each other, and spent a whole day together… they’d become inseparable and they were always with each other no matter what. Their parents were very surprised by this, but also happy that the two boys had finally worked things out with each other and were actually getting along with no problems.

It was a Friday night; and Dan and Phil were in Phil’s bedroom, lying on his bed. Dan had fallen asleep during their Harry Potter marathon, even though he said he wanted to stay up and watch all the movies because he’d never seen them before, but after Phil had talked about it… he wanted to know what all the fuss was about. They were on the third film currently, and Dan clearly didn’t realize how long all of the movies actually were. He had been asleep for about an hour now, and Phil couldn’t help but notice how absolutely adorable Dan looked while he was sleeping next to him, he was curled up with his head resting on Phil’s chest and a blanket wrapped tightly around him.

It was around 10pm when Phil had finally let out a yawn, he stretched out his arms as he looked around the room. He looked down at Dan when he felt Dan move beside him, and then Dan started mumbling things in his sleep that Phil couldn’t quite understand.

“Dan?” Phil asked, shaking him a few times to try and wake him up.

“No!” Dan yelled as he shot up, his eyes going wide.

Phil immediately sat up, a little surprised by Dan’s sudden out burst. “Are you okay?”

Dan looked around, breathing hard, trying to figure out where exactly he was. “What’s happening?” He asked nervously as he looked over at Phil. “D-Did I fall asleep?”

“Yeah, about an hour ago when Prisoner of Azkaban started, are you okay?” Phil asked, a little worried. He had never seen Dan like this before, which was worrying.

Dan took a deep breath and nodded. “Just a nightmare.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” He rubbed Dan’s back gently and whispered some soothing words in his ear, trying to calm him a little.

“I-I-I, well, I went through a lot of stuff at the orphanage, not all of it was good, and some of the things I still haven’t forgotten about most of it,” Dan whispered.

“I won’t make you talk about whatever you went through… but I promise, you won’t have to go back there, okay? You’re safe here,” Phil said softly, scooting closer to Dan.

Dan looked over at Phil, chewing on his bottom lip. “You promise?”

“I promise,” Phil replied with a reassuring smile. He stared at Dan for a few seconds before he took a deep breath. "Have you ever been in love?“ He asked curiously.

Dan raised his eyebrows and shook his head. "Not really. I mean… sure I’ve thought some boys were cute and I’ve had little crushes, but, never in love. Why?”

“Do you happen to have any crushes now?” Phil asked. He was trying to hint to Dan that he liked him, as more than a ‘brother’. Phil knew it was wrong, but he also knew they weren’t technically brothers. He had thought about this, he knew what he wanted. He’s only known Dan for a short period of time, but he’s felt like he’s known Dan for years.

“I don’t think I should say it out loud,” Dan mumbled. He could feel himself blushing.

“So, you do have a crush on someone?” Phil asked a little more hopeful.

“Y-Yes but… he’s very close to me, almost family. It’s wrong,”

“But it feels right,” Phil whispered, quickly getting an idea of what Dan was saying and pulling him closer. “You know that it feels right Dan. You just feel it.”

Dan gasped, trying not to get too hopeful . “P-Phil, do you…?”

“We’re not technically brothers, Dan. You know that? We aren’t related. Sure, mum and dad adopted you and we’re supposed to be brothers… but in the end, we’re not. So, we’re not doing anything wrong. Us together isn’t wrong at all,” Phil assured him.

“Oh, yeah. I-I guess I never really t-thought of it like that,” Dan’s voice was soft, it was almost a whisper. His stutter had come back because of his excitement, even though he knew that he shouldn’t get his hopes up, just in case something went wrong.

“Dan, can I try something real fast?” Phil asked nervously, biting his lip slightly and leaning closer to his new found crush. His body was fueling with excitement. He’d been waiting to do this for quite a while now, to be able to kiss Dan.

“Like what?” Dan asked as he looked over at Phil. His eyes went wide with shock as soon as he felt Phil’s lips against his. He had never kissed anybody before… so he obviously didn’t know how to kiss, but he really didn’t want to make himself look like an idiot in front of Phil so he tried his best to follow Phil’s movements.

Phil finally pulled away from the kiss a few seconds later and nervously looked at Dan.

“Wow. Phil, I-I’ve never kissed anyone before,” Dan whispered as he leaned his forehead against Phil’s and stared into his eyes, a smile forming on his face.

Phil couldn’t help but smile. “I’m glad I had the honor to be your first,”

“Can you do that again?” Dan asked shyly after taking a deep breath. His heart was pounding against his chest, and he was sure Phil could hear it, but he couldn’t help himself. He he had just gotten his first kiss for gods sake, and it was with Phil… someone who had hated him for weeks. It made him feel nervous, but, at the same time, it also made him very happy for multiple reasons. He liked Phil, quite a lot. 

“I would be happy too-” Phil cut himself off and leaned forward to kiss Dan, this time more passionately. He wrapped his arms around the younger boy and then he carefully laid him down on his back. They kissed for what felt like forever, before Phil pulled away again. “For someone who’s never kissed before… you’re pretty damn good at it.”

Dan blushed and shook his head. “I just did what you were doing,”

Phil laughed, then let go of Dan, before sitting up again. “Of course,”

“Now what do we do?” Dan asked nervously, looking up at Phil.

“What do you mean?” Phil asked, in his turn looking down at Dan.

“Did you just kiss me for no reason or do you actually like me?” Dan asked nervously, the possibility that Phil was just playing with him was just too obvious to forget.

“I actually do like you, or else I wouldn’t have kissed you in the first place Dan,” Phil replied, sort of offended that Dan had so little confidence in him, even though he knew he was the one who caused it, after everything that he had put Dan through before.

Dan sighed. “We can’t do this. We both know it’s not right,” He mumbled.

“We can’t help who we fall in love with. Besides, it’s like I said before… we’re not technically brothers. We should, and could, be together if we want to be,” Phil said.

“Phil, I don’t think you understand-” Dan sighed as he pushed himself up. “Mum and dad could send me back to the orphanage if they don’t want us to be together. They’ll see how wrong this and they’ll not want us to be together. I-I can’t go back there… I don’t want to go back. I like it here… I like being here with you,” He said.

“Hey, I won’t let that happen,” Phil whispered, sitting closer to Dan. “We’ll just have to be careful for a little bit, okay? I mean, you want this too, right?” He asked.

“Of course. After spending so much time with you… I realized how amazing you are and how much I do want to be with you. I just don’t want you to be taken away from me after we’ve finally starting liking each other,” Dan said before taking a deep breath.

Phil couldn’t help but smile at Dan’s words. “I’m glad we talked about this,”

“Yeah? I’m glad too,” Dan sighed happily.

“What do you say? Do you want to go down and get something to eat?” Phil asked, only now noticing how hungry he was. And Dan had gotten better at going down to eat with the whole family, and he was eating less snacks, so they wanted to keep that up.

“Yeah. I’m pretty hungry actually,” Dan said shyly.

Phil laughed as he pushed himself up from the bed. He held out a hand for Dan and smiled when he took it before gently pulling him up from the bed. They finally made their way down to the kitchen, where Paula was already at.

“Hey mum,” Phil greeted as he and Dan walked into the kitchen.

Paula looked over and smiled when she saw her sons together. “Hello boys,”

“We just came down to get something to eat,” Phil told her, hoping that this would be quick so he could go back to kissing his boyfriend.

“That’s fine, I was just finishing up the dishes. Oh, and Phil, I was just wondering earlier… what happened to Mason? We haven’t seen him around in a while,” Paula said.

Phil froze as soon as his mom mentioned Mason, who he hadn’t spoken to in the last couple of weeks due to their breakup. Phil had completely forgot to tell his parents that they had broken up, he had been trying to forget about it anyways.

Dan looked over at Phil and blinked a few times when he saw the look on his face. He didn’t have a clue about who this Mason guy was, so naturally he was a little curious about who his boyfriends friends were, considering Phil never talked about that stuff.

“Um, well… Mason and I- we broke up,” Phil mumbled to his mother .

“Oh, I’m so sorry Phil. You should have said something before!” Paula exclaimed, getting mad at herself for not noticing before. She usually always looked after Phil and noticed when he was upset, as a mother always should with her child.

“It happened right before you told me about adopting Dan. I know I should have said something but I didn’t want to bring you down with my problems,” He said.

“What happened? I thought you really liked Mason?” Paula asked, turning around and raising her eyebrows as she looked up at her son. She and her husband usually kept up with their son’s relationships, they always wanted to know who he was hanging out with and who he was dating. Sometimes it was kind of really annoying, but Phil understood why they were protective. They were his parents after all.

“I did, I really did like Mason but… Mason apparently didn’t want to stick to just one person,” Phil mumbled softly while glancing at Dan, he wanted to see how his boyfriend reacted to this news. It was hard to read his face, and Phil didn’t know if that was a good thing. What happened with Mason was in the past now and he didn’t stop loving his ex almost right away, he just hoped that Dan understood this.

“Did he cheat on you?” Paula asked a little shocked. She felt absolutely horrible that her son had gone through a breakup and she didn’t even have a clue of what was happening, she had been too busy preparing for the arrival of Dan. Paula shook her head in disbelief. She had met Mason a few times and really liked him, so it was hard for her to believe that he would actually cheat on Phil. “I’m sorry, Phil. You didn’t deserve that.”

“It’s fine… I’m totally and completely over him,” Phil said. “Honestly.”

“Good, I’m glad. I’m sure you’ll find someone else in no time,” Paula said with a smile.

Phil bit his lip slightly as he looked over at Dan and smiled. “Yeah, I think so,”

Dan blushed as he looked down at his hands, knowing that Phil was talking about him.

“So Dan, are you excited about starting school soon?” Paula asked, smiling as she looked over at Dan. She chuckled when she saw his reaction. “By the look on your face, I can see that you’re a little nervous then, am I right?”

“More than a little nervous actually,” Dan mumbled as he looked up at Phil.

“Why are you making him go to school?” Phil asked curiously. He was worried about Dan going to school all by himself, especially after his school experience. People at school were horrible to him and he didn’t want Dan to go through the same thing as him.

“Because everybody needs education in their life. I know that he’s missed a lot of school, but he’ll catch up in no time. He’s going to be fine,” She told Phil.

“But, what if people don’t like me?” Dan asked quietly, not really wanting to bring attention onto himself. He didn’t ever like having the spotlight on him.

“Nonsense. They’re going to love you!” Paula exclaimed. “How could they not?”

“Doubt it. That’s what you said to me before I went to school and then everybody hated me,” Phil said as he crossed his arms against his chest, scoffing slightly.

“Well Phil, that’s because you never talked to anyone until your very last year of school,” Paula said, rolling her eyes. “But… you got through it, didn’t you?”

“Barely,” Phil sighed. “I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for Chris and PJ.”

“Now, I’d be even more proud if you had went to university like they did,” Paula said.

“I hated school. Why would I want to do four more years of it?” Phil asked.

Paula sighed and shook her head. “Your choice I guess. I’m going to be up in my room if anybody needs me,” She said before turning around and walking out of the kitchen , finally leaving Dan and Phil alone. Phil waited until his mom was completely gone before he sighed and looked over at Dan, chuckling when he saw the look on his face.

“What was that all about?” Dan asked, raising his eyebrows. He had millions of questions that he wanted to ask Phil; like who this ‘Mason’ was, and what happened when he was at school. But he wasn’t going to, because they seemed quite personal, and the last thing that Dan wanted to do was make Phil upset.

“Mum and dad are upset that I didn’t chose to go to Uni and get further education. I just hated school so I chose not to go even though I could’ve,” Phil explained.

“Will I have to go?” Dan asked, biting his lip softly.

“No… it’s completely your choice, Dan. I hated school and people were horrible to me but who knows? Maybe it’ll be different for you. School’s different for everybody. Now, let’s find something to eat and then we’ll go back upstairs and cuddle, okay?” Phil said, almost whispering the last part.

Dan smiled and nodded, “Okay, yeah… sounds good to me-” He said, watching as Phil began to look through the cabinets to find something for them to eat. He then walked over to one of the chairs at the table and sat down.

“Now we just have to actually find something good to eat in this house,” Phil grumbled when he couldn’t find anything after looking through the fridge.

“We can just order pizza if you want,” Dan told him. He shrugged his shoulders.

“Yeah, you can’t ever go wrong with pizza,” Phil agreed. He looked over at Dan and grinned. “We always seem to eat pizza anyways.” He then laughed and rolled his eyes.

“It’s like you said… you can’t go wrong with pizza!” Dan also laughed. Even though he didn’t really liked pizza until now, he didn’t mind eating it. He and Phil had it so many times that he had pretty much gotten used to it, which was a good thing for him.

______

****

And so another two weeks have gone and passed by; Dan and Phil were now ‘officially’ dating. Nobody knew about what was going on between them, and they kind of liked sneaking around. Though, sometimes they wished they didn’t have to sneak around to see each other. They were both constantly afraid of one of their parents catching them together and then tearing them apart. They hated sneaking around, and often talked to each other about how it would be if they could just be together, but both of them knew that this was nearly impossible, at least for the time being. They would go on like this, they would do anything if it went being together, even though they had only been together for around two weeks, they’d fallen in love with each other quickly so the fact that it had only been two weeks didn’t really matter to either of them. 

“I can’t believe mum and dad are making you go to school,” Phil whined as he cuddled into his boyfriend, he sighed and wrapped his arms tighter around him, sighing as he did so. “I mean… what am I going to do without you here while you’re gone for eight hours? Who am I gonna cuddle and kiss?” Phil pouted, just thinking about it killed him.

It was a Friday night and they were cuddled up on Dan’s bed. It was around 9pm and they were spending as much time as they could together because after this weekend, Dan was going to school for the first time since he came into the lester family.

“Can’t you just teach me everything I need to know? I mean, you graduated already, so you could easily do it.” Dan said while looking at the other boy, knowing well enough that what he just said will never be possible. “I really don’t want to go to school.” 

“I don’t want you to go either Dan,” Phil said sadly, shaking his head at Dan’s former words, “But you’ll be fine. I went there too and even though if it can be a little tough sometimes, it’s easy to survive. Hell, I survived didn’t I? My life is fine now!”

Dan sighed and nuzzled his lovers neck. “I want to stay here with you,”

“I want you to stay here with me too,” Phil looked down at Dan. “I mean, God only knows how many boy’s, and girl’s, will be after you at that school. I would get really jealous if you’re there and I’m here all alone. So, you better not go on with other boys at this new school, because you’ll be in big trouble if I would ever find out. ” His voice stayed playfull the whole time, because he trusted Dan with all of his heart. He trusted the boy to stay loyal to him just like he would be in return.

Dan giggled and shook his head. “I would never do such a thing!”

“Uh huh. You better not mister,” Phil chuckled, and then he reached down and pressed his lips against Dan’s and kissed him gently, smiling as he did so.

Dan smiled as he kissed Phil back immediately, snaking his arms gently around Phil’s neck. “P-Phil-” He moaned into the kiss, while his eyes fluttered shut.

“God, you’re such a good fucking kisser,” Phil whispered as he pulled away and smirked at Dan, who stared up at him a little daze.

“You’ve already said that before,” Dan rolled his eyes playfully.

“Well, it’s true!” Phil exclaimed, smirking slightly.

Dan blushed as he shook his head. “I-I guess I just l-learn from the best,”

“I guess so,” Phil joked. He smiled and then he started kissing Dan again, slowly moving his hand underneath Dan’s shirt and letting it rest on his chest, sending shivers up Dan’s spine. Phil knew that Dan was still quite young, so he had to watch himself with what he did around him. He didn’t want to make Dan uncomfortable or scare him, that was the last thing that he wanted to do. He didn’t want to do anything until Dan was 100% ready for, though they only just started dating so Phil knew it would at least be a while, but he was totally ready to wait for Dan. But it was kind of weird, since Phil had never dated anyone this young before, so he had never felt like he had watch himself like this.

Meanwhile, Paula was just walking down the hallway to check on Dan, to making sure he was ready for bed. She wanted him to start going to bed early so he would get enough sleep before school started. She knew that Dan liked to stay up late, playing video games or being on the internet. Dan was a typical teenage boy, for sure.

Dan’s bedroom door was creeked open a little bit, which meant that Dan was still awake… and Phil would most likely be with him. She thought it was sweet though, the way they were spending so much time together and getting to know one another, considering how they started off. She never found out what Phil had said to Dan on the first day that they met, but she had a hunch that some nasty words were said, most likely by her son. She was glad that Phil’s perspective of Dan had changed though.

Before, Phil thought that Dan coming into this family would ruin everything, and that they wouldn’t care about Phil or love him the same. Now Phil’s thoughts had completely changed about Dan, and Paula knew that. She couldn’t be more happier.

She walked up to the door and pushed it open. She then looked up and gasped as she saw Phil on top of Dan, kissing him. That was definitely one of the last things she had expected to see. She knew that the two boys were close with each other, but not that close. “Philip Michael Lester!” She shrieked, shock clearly written on her face.

Phil immediately pulled away from Danas he heard his mother’s voice. He nervously looked over and froze when he saw that his mother was indeed, standing in the door opening, and she did not look happy at all. “Mum, wh-what are you doing in here?!”

“It doesn’t matter what I’m doing. What are you doing on top of your brother?!” Paula yelled angrily while crossing her arms against her chest and glaring at Phil.

Phil immediately slid off of Dan. “We weren’t doing anything bad-”

“You were kissing him, and that’s bad enough!” She scoffed. “Your father will be home in about an hour and he will hear about this immediately. I cannot even believe you would do such a thing! Out of this room, this instant!” She yelled as she pointed towards the door. “You two are both in such big trouble.” Her face was red with anger, Phil had never seen his mother so angry before… and it scared him quite a bit.

Phil glanced down at Dan, who was too afraid to move or say anything. He took a deep breath, “I’m sorry, I love you,” He whispered softly into his ear before he stood up from the bed. He didn’t want to leave Dan, but he knew that he had no choice.

Dan slowly pushed himself up, his eyes were red and on the brink of crying.

Paula watched as Phil walked out of the bedroom. She looked over at Dan and sighed, shaking her head disappointingly. Of course she was upset with both of her sons, but she was mostly upset with Phil as he was the older one of the two. “Do not dare to leave your bedroom,” She warned him before she, as well, walked out of Dan’s room.

Dan jumped as the door slammed shut. He the curled up into a ball and hid his face in his hands as a few tears fell out of his eyes. He thought that he and Phil had been so careful with what they were doing, clearly he was wrong. Now, Phil was probably going to be in big trouble and it was going to be his fault and no one else’s. Phil was innocent, and he did nothing wrong. The only thing he did was loving someone, and why in the world would that be so bad? Dan didn’t understand why his mom was so upset.

****

The next hour was torture because Dan could hear Phil and his mother scream at each other… which was something that they almost never did. Dan was almost afraid to leave his bedroom, but he knew that he eventually he would have to.

It was around 10pm and Phil’s father had just gotten home. Phil was sitting on the couch in the living room with his arms crossed his chest as he glared at the TV, which wasn’t even on. He was angry with everything that had happened. He, nor Dan, hadn’t done anything wrong, all they really did was love each other, was it really that bad that they wanted to be together? Apparently, to his parents, it was. He didn’t understand.

“Philip, is what I hear true?” Phil didn’t even look up when he heard his dad speak.

“Answer your father Phil,” Paula warned, crossing her arms against her chest.

“So what?” Phil asked, finally tearing his eyes away from the TV and looking over at his parents. “What’s the big deal? We weren’t doing anything wrong!” He yelled.

“You are meant to be brothers! And brothers do not kiss each other!” Paula yelled back.

“Dan is not my brother, nor will he ever be, why won’t you two understand that?” Phil asked his parents, sighing in frustration. He scoffed and shook his head.

“He was brought into this family. He is our son now, which makes him your brother, do you understand? You are old enough to understand, Phil, so why won’t you?” Jack said calmly. He didn’t want to argue with his son, he just wanted to figure out what was going through his head. He never thought that Phil would do such a thing like this.

“Technically, but he’s not actually my brother,” Phil corrected him. “We aren’t related.”

“And how long has this been going on for?” Paula asked, ignoring his last comment.

“Two weeks, more if you also count the crush that I’ve had on him since he arrived…”

“Speaking of, where is Daniel? Shouldn’t he be down here too?” Jack asked curiously, looking around and noticing that Dan was nowhere to be seen.

“Upstairs in his bedroom. I didn’t want them to be around each other until we spoke about what we were going to do about this… situation,” Paula told him.

“Good. Let’s bring him down here now then so we can talk about this situation,” Jack sighed as he stepped closer to his wife, glancing over at his son.

“Daniel!” Paula yelled loudly. “Get down here, now!”

“Please don’t yell at him, he did nothing wrong…” Phil began to say. He knew how Dan could get when people shouted or raised their voices, he was sensitive and easily scared, and he didn’t want his love to cry even more.

“Hush now Philip,” Paula warned as she looked over at her son.

Phil sighed and then he looked away from his parents, back to the TV, shaking his head.

A few minutes later, Dan appeared at the doorway. He was too afraid to go any further. He didn’t like getting yelled at, but he knew he was going to get yelled at.

“In here… now Dan,” Paula said as soon as she saw Dan standing in the doorway.

Dan slowly walked into the living room, over to the couch and sat down on it, making sure to sit as far away from Phil as possible hoping to not anger their parents even more, but also hoping he didn’t hurt the other’s feelings because of this.

“So, what do you think we should do about this, Jack?” Paula asked her husband.

“I’m not sure what to think of this,” Jack admitted. “Honestly boys, what were you thinking? And Phil, he’s 16! Shouldn’t you be dating people your own age?”

“I tried that before… clearly it doesn’t work,” Phil mumbled. He had definitely gotten over Mason by now, but sometimes it still hurt to think about what Mason did to him.

Dan nervously looked over at Phil, biting his lip, as he wondered again who this Mason guy they kept talking about, seeing as his name was brought up more than once.

“There’s simply no way that we’re going to let you see each other like this,” Paula said to her son angrily. She shook her head and crossed her arms against her chest. 

“There’s nothing wrong about us!” Phil yelled at her while standing up from the couch.

“You two are brothers!” Paula yelled back at him.

“We’re not! I already told you this. Just because you adopted him doesn’t make him my brother. We’re not related! We aren’t. We’re allowed to see each other as much as we want. It’s not like we’re just having sex… we actually care about each other.”

“That’s not the point Philip!” Jack yelled at his son, also raising his voice.

“Then what is the point?!” Phil asked angrily. “Please enlighten me father.”

“You can’t be seeing each other like this, that’s the point!” Jack yelled back at him.

“There is one way we can keep them from seeing each other,” Paula said.

“And what would that be, dear?” Jack asked calmly, looking over at his wife.

“I don’t want to have to do it but, we could just send Dan back to the orphanage,”

“No!” Dan and Phil yelled at the exact same time.

“No, please! Please don’t!” Dan begged as he immediately looked up at his parents. “I’ll do anything, I swear I’ll do anything. Just please don’t make me go back there. I like it here!” His eyes began to water up. The thought of being sent back to the orphanage after being happy for the first time in his life absolutely frightened Dan.

“Please don’t send him back there,” Phil begged as well. He clearly remembered the promise that he made Dan a few weeks ago. He promised him that he would never have to go back to that orphanage, and he was going to keep that promise.

“I know. Phil can move out, and Dan can stay here with us,” Jack suggested.

“That’s not such a bad idea,” Paula raised her eyebrows.

“What?!” Phil yelled with shock, his eyes going wide. He quickly shook his head. Being on his own… it scared him , quite a bit. He wasn’t ready to be out in the real world all on his own. He needed his time. “You can’t kick me out of the house, I did nothing wrong!”

“We can buy him a nice apartment,” Jack added, ignoring what Phil said.

“No! Absolutely not! I’m not ready to move out,” Phil tried again.

“He is still quite young to be moving out on his own. We can’t do that,” Paula agreed with her son. She sighed, feeling a little more frustrated at this point.

“Well, what do you suppose we do? They can’t keep seeing each other,” Jack hissed.

“We love each other,” Phil whispered, taking a deep breath.

“Jack, we can’t kick him out. It wouldn’t be right for us to do that,” Paula said ignoring what Phil just said. “He’s still our son no matter what, and we still love him.”

Jack sighed with frustration. “We’ll figure something out. In the meantime, keep away from each other! If I find either of you near each other, you will be grounded for life. Got it?” He warned them before he turned around and stormed out of the living room.

“Mum, can you please do something about him?” Phil begged.

“I want you two to go upstairs. No questions asked,” Paula said calmly to both of them.

Phil stared at her for a few seconds before he finally turned around and he also stormed out of the living room, not even saying a single word to Dan.

Dan looked down at his hands once he was left alone with Paula.

“You’ve gotten yourself into a big mess, you know that?” Paula asked as she sat down on the couch next to Dan. “I’ve almost never seen my husband so upset before.”

Dan nervously looked up at Paula but remained silent. He quickly wiped away a tear that slipped out of his eyes. “Please don’t send me back,” He whispered.

“We won’t do that to you. Don’t worry-” Paula sighed.

“Why can’t I be with Phil?” Dan asked, fiddling with his fingers.

“It’s wrong Dan, okay? You won’t be happy with him. People will judge you and it’ll tear you apart. Say, if we did let you two be together. What if you break up? What’s going to happen then? You’ll lose your friendship,” Paula told him. “I don’t want that.”

“But we’re happy together, we’re always happy together. Why would we break up?” Dan asked, not really understanding what she was trying to say to him.

“Phil is older. He can do more things than you can,” Paula quickly added.

“But Phil promised he would never get bored of me. We already talked about this,” Dan argued back. Dan was never one to argue, but he knew that she was wrong.

“You shouldn’t have to have this talk. That’s the point,” Paula snapped before stood up and walked out of the living room without saying another word to Dan.

Dan frowned, realizing that what she said was right. He and Phil shouldn’t have to have all of these conversations, but why did it matter what they did? He didn’t care about that though, he loved Phil no matter what and still wanted to be with him.

______

“It’s raining outside,” Dan whined as he stood in front of the window.

It was Monday, and it was his first day of school. He was definitely not looking forward to it at all… no matter what his parents told him. He didn’t want to go to school, he would much rather stay at home and be with Phil. Even though they hadn’t really spoken in two days. They could’ve talked to each other earlier, but neither of them wanted to make their parent’s even angrier, so they avoided each other. It hurts for both of them, but it wasn’t like they really had a choice at this point.

“You’ll be fine. Jack is going to take you to school so you don’t have to wait outside for the bus,” Paula told him, as she looked over at Dan and smiled proudly at him. Despite everything that was going on between him and Phil, she was proud that Dan was starting school. “Do you have everything you need? Notebooks? Folders? Pencils?”

“Yup. Everything’s already in my backpack,” Dan replied. He walked over to the kitchen table and grabbed said backpack. “Dad told me we can go shopping again later if we forgot anything on the list. But… I think we got everything that I needed.”

“Perfect. First day of school is always the most important. So behave young man,” Paula tried to be stern, but it didn’t really worked, as she started to smile before she even finished the sentence. Dan was a good boy, she knew that he would be good anyways.

“I promise I will,” Dan said. He looked up at Paula and smiled, he then looked over when he heard footsteps and froze when he saw Phil standing in the doorway.

“Oh, uh-” Phil began to say, he stopped as soon as he saw Dan was in the kitchen as well, though he knew that Dan would already be up so he hoped that if he came downstairs… that he would find Dan before he left. He bit his lip as he stared at Dan.

Paula looked over and sighed when she saw Phil. “Did you want something?”

“I-I just came to get something to drink,” Phil lied. He knew that Dan would be up because it was his first day of school, and he wanted to see him before he left. “And I also wanted to wish Dan good luck on his first day of school. I know how nervous he is.”

“Thank you, that means a lot,” Dan said, smiling at him.

Phil smiled right back, taking every second he got to look at his beautiful boyfriend.

“That was sweet of you Phil,” Paula said calmly. “Jack! Dan needs to leave, now!”

Phil rolled his eyes at his mother and then walked over to the fridge. He knew that his mom was only rushing because she didn’t want them to spend any time together, and honestly, he just found it stupid. Couldn’t he just wish his love a good day of school without his parent’s making such a fuss about it? They were making it such a big deal, when in reality… it really wasn’t. Phil was getting even more frustrated because of it. 

“Alright, alright… I’m coming-” Jack said as he walked into the kitchen. He looked over and frowned when he saw that Phil was there as well. He looked back over at his wife but she only glared at him, not wanting Jack and Phil to start an argument on Dan’s first day of school. “Got everything then, ready to go?” He asked Dan calmly.

“Ready!” Dan replied, throwing his backpack over his shoulders.

“Let’s get going. Don’t want to be late on the first day of school,” Jack said.

“Good luck, and have fun,” Paula said as she kissed Dan’s forehead.

“Thank you mum, I’ll try to have fun…” Dan said with a smile. He walked over to Jack and then followed him out of the kitchen, feeling bad for not saying goodbye to Phil.

Phil pulled out a bottle of orange juice before shutting the fridge and turning towards his mother, biting his lip slightly as he stared at her. “So then, have you and dad made up your mind yet?… about what you were going to do about us?”

“Phil, it’s too early to talk about this,” Paula groaned.

“We can’t keep waiting. I miss him so much, and it kills me to know he’s in the same house as me and I can’t even talk to him,” Phil said quietly.

“Why don’t you try going out with Mason again?” Paula asked. 

“Mum, he cheated on me! Once a cheater, always a cheater,” Phil grumbled. He Would never ever be able to forgive Mason for what he did. Mason hurt him. Phil knew that Dan would never do something like that to him, at least, he trusted Dan not to.

“Oh right. I forgot about that part,” Paula said before she sighed.

“Aren’t you and dad the one who wanted me to get along wit him anyways?”

“Yes, but not like this. This is not how we wanted it to go,” She replied.

“It’s not that different. I know it seems wrong but… it just feels so right. When I’m with him… I just feel so happy inside, like there are butterflies everywhere, and he makes me smile, he makes me laugh even when he doesn’t try to. I’ve never felt like this before, and it kind of scares me. But I love him. I can’t see myself without him anymore. I know that many people won’t accept us, but I can live with that, honestly,” Phil said.

Paula bit her lip nervously as she listened to her son. She wanted him to be happy, and she knew if they took Dan away from him he wouldn’t be able to. She too knows the feeling of loving someone, losing her husband would probably kill her, and Phil had been through a lot the past couple of months, he deserved to be happy.

“Do you really love this boy?” Paula asked softly.

“Yes, I really do love him. I know it’s only been two weeks but… I love him. At first, I hated the thought of some teenage boy coming into our family and ruining everything. I said some things to Dan that I should have never said to him in the beginning, and I regret ever saying them to him, but… I don’t know. I’m glad that I gave him a chance, I couldn’t live one day without him,” Phil whispered.

“I’ll talk to your father, okay? I’m not promising anything though,” Paula warned.

“A-Are you being serious mum?” Phil asked a little shocked. He hadn’t really expected his mom to say that, considering how she acted when she first saw him with Dan.

“I guess you’re right. You two aren’t technically brothers,” Paula looked up at Phil.

“Wow. Whatever you can do… I’ll be thankful for it,” Phil smiled at his mother.

“I’m not promising anything, remember that. Your father will be difficult to convince… but I’ll talk to him and see if we can work something out for you two,” Paula told him.

“Thank you. It really means a lot to me mum,” Phil said while walking towards her and hugging her. He couldn’t resist it, just hearing his mom say that made him so happy.

“I’m going to go get ready for the day,” Paula said, accepting the hug,

“Do you want anything for breakfast?” Phil asked.

“I’m good for now, but thank you. Maybe we can make something together later,” Paula nodded, and then walked out of the kitchen, leaving Phil all by himself.

He couldn’t help the smile forming on his face. The fact that he and Dan might actually have a chance together made him unbelievably happy. He wanted nothing more than to be with Dan… not having to worry about getting caught by their parents. He just wanted his parents to see that they loved each other, and that they need each other to live.

****

Dan sighed as he walked into the house, shutting the door behind him. Although he actually had a great time at school, he couldn’t be more happier to be home.

“I’m home!” He yelled loudly as he dropped his backpack by the door.

“Hey stranger,”

Dan looked up and gasped as soon as he saw Phil leaning against the hallway wall, with his arms crossed against his chest and a smile on his face. “Phil?” Dan asked quietly.

“So, how was your first day of school?” Phil asked, standing up straight.

“Um, i-it was fine actually. What’s going on?” Dan asked, walking down into the hallway closer to where Phil was standing. “Phil, mum and dad will see you…”

“They know very well that I’m down here, don’t worry,” Phil reassured him.

“B-But they said they didn’t want us together… at all,” Dan whispered confused.

“That was two days ago. Today is a little different,” Phil smiled.

“W-What are you t-trying to tell me?” Dan asked, blinking a few times.

Phil walked over to Dan and gently took his hands. “We have a lot of cuddling to catch up on, that’s what I’m trying to tell you,” He whispered into Dan’s ear.

Dan stared at him for a few seconds, before he gasped, suddenly realizing what was going on. “Are you saying that w-we can… we can…?” He was speechless.

“Yes, we can,” Phil said as he smiled and immediately, yet gently, wrapped his arms around Dan and pulled him into a warm hug, closing his eyes as he did so. It had been two whole days since he’s been able to hug Dan, so he was taking this all in.

“Christ,” Dan whispered as he hid his face in Phil’s chest, wrapping his arms around him too. “I-I can’t believe this is actually happening. We can actually be together?”

“You better believe it because its true,” Phil whispered before he gently pulled away from the hug, but still kept his arms around Dan, and smiled down at him. 

“What the hell happened while I was at school?” Dan asked, still not believing it.

“I talked to mum right after you and dad left this morning. Mum then talked to dad and they both agreed to let us be together. I don’t know what exactly she said to him, but whatever she said… it worked, because here we are. And I couldn’t be happier. Those two days without you were hard enough, I don’t how much longer I could have gone without you,” Phil said. “Two days without you was hard enough for me.”

“At least I would have had school to keep me distracted,” Dan laughed.

“Yeah. And Chris and Peej are gone now… oh God. I probably will have to find a job or something. Ugh, responsibilities,” Phil said as his eyes went wide.

Dan rolled his eyes as he pushed Phil playfully. “Should we celebrate?”

“Obviously we should celebrate!” Phil exclaimed excitedly. “Did you eat lunch?”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t that great, if I’m being honest,” Dan blushed lightly. “Mum was right… I should have packed something instead. School lunches suck.”

“Maybe we can convince mum and dad to let us go out later, they owe us,” Phil said.

“Yeah. But for now… I would really like those cuddles you were talking about,” Dan smiled innocently. He couldn’t wait to cuddle with Phil again.

Phil laughed at his boyfriend and then dragged him into the living room. He walked over to the couch sat down, gently pulling Dan down next to him. He then wrapped his arms around Dan and pulled him closer, kissing his forehead and whispering, “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Dan whispered back as he gently rested his head against Phil’s chest, closing his eyes. He couldn’t be more thankful that he had someone like Phil in his life.

“Oh… by the way, how was school actually?” Phil asked, looking down at Dan. He knew how nervous Dan had been about school, and he didn’t even had a chance to talk to Dan this morning about it and calm him down because of their parents. He had definitely been worried about Dan all afternoon, wondering how he was doing at school.

“It was alright… it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. A lot of the people there are actually quite nice and I think I found a few people who could be my friends. They all know that I’m the kid that the Lester’s adopted so they’re quite nice to me,” Dan said.

“Just remember… if anyone gives you any type of shit, tell me and I’ll be more than happy to take care of them. I just really want you to be happy,” Phil whispered.

Dan smiled as he looked up at his boyfriend. “Trust me Phil, I am happy.”

Dan had gone through a lot of crap growing up, some things he would forget and some he wouldn’t forget so easily. But, it was in the past now, all he cared about now was where his future was heading. He had two parents who cared about him and wanted nothing more for him then to be successful in life, and now he had a boyfriend too, who loved him and wanted nothing more for him to be happy.

This is all Daniel James Howell had ever dreamed to have in his life really, and now he finally got it. This is all he really needed in life to be happy. What more could he ask for?

And now Dan knew that he would never ever have to go back to that orphanage again.


End file.
